The study investigated how early childhood teachers’ sense of happiness, ego-resilience, and
self-determination differ depending on their backgrounds, and whether significant relationships exist among
them. For these purposes, 165 early childhood teachers residing in Gyeeongsangnam-do providence
participated in the survey, then a one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlational tests, and Scheffé post-hoc tests
were conducted with the collected data. The results indicated that first, early childhood teachers' present
position and years of experience positively affected their 'autonomy', 'sense of competency', and 'relationship
with the others', which are sub-categories of self-determination. Second, early childhood teachers'
'autonomy'(a sub-category of self-determination) resulted in the lowest score, while 'optimistic directivity of
the future'(a sub-category of ego-resilience) and 'internal happiness'(a sub-category of sense of happiness)
showed the highest score. Third, a high score of correlation(0.816) resulted between early childhood
teachers' ego-resilience and sense of happiness. The results of the present study are expected to become
helpful when developing programs designed to promote early childhood teachers’ competencies.